Method for measuring energy generation and efficiency of dielectric elastomer
generators
Rainer Kaltseis,1 Christoph Keplinger,1 Richard Baumgartner,1 Martin Kaltenbrunner,1 Tiefeng
Li,2 3 Philipp Mächler,1 Reinhard Schwödiauer,1 Zhigang Suo2 and Siegfried Bauer1,a
1)Soft
Matter Physics, Johannes Kepler University, Altenbergerstrasse 69, A-4040 Linz,
Austria
2)School
of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
02138, USA
3)Institute
of Applied Mechanics, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
310027, China
Dielectric elastomer generators convert mechanical into electrical energy at high energy density,
showing promise for large and small scale energy harvesting. We present an experiment to
monitor electrical and mechanical energy flows separately, and show the cycle of energy
conversion in work-conjugate planes. A specific electrical energy generated per cycle of
102 mJ/g , at a specific average power of 17 mW/g , is demonstrated with an acrylic elastomer in
a showcase generation cycle. The measured mechanical to electrical energy conversion efficiency
is 7.5% . The experiment may be used to assess the aptitude of specifically designed elastomers
for energy harvesting.
aemail:
sbauer@jku.at
1/12
Dielectric elastomer generators (DEGs) use soft, electrically and mechanically
deformable capacitors to convert mechanical into electrical energy1,2. They reverse the mode of
operation of dielectric elastomer actuators3, developed for a wide range of applications including
artificial muscles, tunable optics, inertial drive vibrators and Braille displays 4. DEGs potentially
enable light and silent harvesting of mechanical energy from small to large scales, e.g. from
human gait to wind and ocean waves5. Theoretical estimates show a huge specific electrical
energy generated per cycle up to 1.7 J/g with off-the-shelf materials6. DEGs have been
employed in the heel of shoes for energy harvesting from walking. Durability in sea water
environment and impedance matching of ocean waves and elastomer membranes make DEGs a
promising candidate for off-shore wave energy harvesting. Devices avoiding bulky, rigid and
heavy external electronics were demonstrated based on self priming circuits7-9. Despite these
achievements there is still no common method to display the conversion cycles and to assess the
specific electrical energy generated per cycle. Reported experimental values range over orders
of magnitude from 2.15 mJ/g to 400 mJ/g 1,10,11.
This paper presents an experiment to monitor the electrical and mechanical energy flows
separately. The experiment determines the specific electrical energy generated per cycle, the
specific average power, and the mechanical to electrical energy conversion efficiency. Following
suggestions made in our previous theoretical work,2,6 we operate the generator between two
charge reservoirs of different voltages, and describe the cycle of energy conversion in workconjugate planes.
The experiment is carried out with a commonly used material and transducer design,
Fig. 1 (a). A 3M™ VHB™ 4910F dielectric elastomer membrane — thickness 1 mm , radius
22.5 mm and mass 1.53 g — is coated with compliant electrodes (carbon grease made of
ELBESIL™ B50 silicon oil and carbon black powder from ABCR™ with an average particle size
2/12
of 0.42 μm ). The membrane is mounted on a buffer chamber of volume 350 cm3 , and is
deformable by pressure and voltage. Such a membrane is a commonly used design of dielectric
elastomer transducers12. It should be emphasized that our experiment can be performed with
other designs of dielectric elastomer transducers. The inflation allows for equal-biaxial stretch in
the top region, the deformation mode predicted to yield the highest energy of conversion13. Due
to inflation the area of the membrane expands and the thickness decreases, so that the
capacitance of the membrane increases.
We monitor the mechanical energy flows by tracking the excess pressure p in the
chamber with a JUMO™ dtrans p30 pressure sensor, and by monitoring the volume V of the
balloon with the video of the deforming membrane. We realize the two charge reservoirs of
different voltages,
in
capacitance of Cin
membrane Cmax
and
Cout
out
, by using high-voltage capacitors (FTCap™ Germany) with
440 nF , much larger than the maximum capacitance of the
34.7 nF in the fully inflated state. The voltage of the membrane,
m
, is
measured without electrical contact by a Kelvin probe voltmeter (TREK™ model 341A) to avoid
charge leakage through the measurement instrument. The measured voltage
m
is taken to be
the same as the voltage of the input reservoir when it is connected to the membrane, and the
slight decrease in the voltage
drawn from the input reservoir,
in
of the input reservoir determines the amount of charge
Q Cin
in
. A similar procedure determines the charge
released to the output reservoir. Data acquisition is performed with a DAQ-card (National
Instruments™ PCI-6040E). The charge reservoirs are connected to the top electrode of the
membrane via high-voltage reed relays (Meder™ H12-1A69). The inlet and outlet valves as well
as the relays are controlled via an USB-relay card (QUANCOM™ USBREL8/A) and a LabView™
program.
3/12
The energy flows are shown in Fig. 1 (b). The reservoir of low voltage
supplies
in
electric charge to the membrane, the mechanical energy elevates the voltage of the charge, and
the charge is then released to the reservoir of high voltage
out
. That is, the mechanical energy
pumps electric charge from a low voltage to a high voltage.
Figure 2 shows the chosen cycle of energy conversion in a plane, whose axes are workconjugate variables: the voltage
m
and the charge Qm of the membrane. At state 1 the
membrane is connected to the input reservoir at voltage
1 to state 2, the membrane at voltage
in
in
. In the isovoltaic process from state
is inflated (the balloon shape is indicated with solid
(state 1) and dashed (state 2) lines), drawing an amount of charge
electrical energy
E12
in
Q
Qhigh
Qlow and
Q from the input reservoir. Next, the membrane is disconnected
from the reservoir to work under open circuit conditions. The membrane is deflated and hence
the voltage of the membrane increases by
out
reaching
in
out
at state 3. From state 3
to state 4 the membrane is connected to the output reservoir at high voltage
air in this second isovoltaic step, an amount of charge
electrical energy
E34
out
out
. By releasing
Q from the compliant electrodes and
Q is transferred to the output reservoir. In the constant charge
step under open circuit conditions from state 4 to state 1, the membrane is inflated until the
electrical voltage decreases to
in
, completing the cycle. For the rectangular cycle chosen, the
electrical energy generated per cycle is Egen
E34
E12
Q . If the output voltage
out
and maximal volume are chosen close to the material limits (dielectric breakdown and rupture),
the cycle can be used to compare the aptitude of different materials for use in DEGs.
Figure 3 (a) shows the evolution of electrical work-conjugate variables: voltage
4/12
m
and
charge Qm . At t
0 s the voltage on the membrane is
out
4.5 kV and the charge on the
electrodes is Qlow , corresponding to state 4 in Fig. 2. By inflating the membrane we increase the
capacitance Cm and reduce the voltage
m
reaching
in
2.5 kV (state 1) at t
0.48 s . At this
moment the input reservoir Cin is connected to the membrane. The voltage shortly falls below
in
because of control latency, with negligible effect on the harvested energy, as shown later.
The slight voltage decrease
t
0.48 s and t
and energy
E12
12
of the input reservoir between state 1 and 2 (between
3.48 s ) is used to calculate the amount of charge
Q12
Cin
74.36 μC
12
183 mJ extracted from the input reservoir.
Rapid deflation (used to avoid charge leakage through the elastomer membrane) under
open-circuit conditions causes the voltage to shortly rise above
out
4.5 kV at t
3.86 s (due
to control latency), then the output reservoir Cout is connected. Applying the same approach as
above, we obtain the amount of charge
Q34
Cout
34
74.32 μC and energy
transferred to the high voltage reservoir Cout . Further relaxation until t
E34
339 mJ
6 s finishes the cycle
and state 4 is reached again.
The amount of charge taken from one reservoir and delivered to the other is nearly
identical, revealing small leakage current losses through the membrane in the chosen cycle. This
enables the calculation of the capacitance of the membrane through monitoring the voltage of
the reservoirs, if charge losses are neglected.
Figure 3 (b) shows the time evolution of the mechanical work-conjugate variables.
During inflation of the balloon from state 4 to 2 the pressure follows the well known N-shaped
equation of state for elastomer balloons14. During deflation from state 2 to 4 the pressure drops
and the balloon volume decreases close to the initial value.
5/12
The cycle of energy conversion is summarized in work-conjugate planes in Fig. 4. The
scales are chosen such that identical areas in (a) and (b) correspond to equal amounts of energy.
The black squares in Fig. 4 (a) show the counter-clockwise path of the DEG cycle in the electrical
work-conjugate
energy of Egen
, Q plane with an enclosed area corresponding to the generated electrical
156 mJ . The undershoots and overshoots of the voltage in state 1 and 3 cause no
significant contributions to the area, thus the control latency has negligible influence on the
conversion performance.
The blue triangles in Fig. 4 (b) depict the clockwise path of the DEG cycle in the p, V
plane. The enclosed area corresponds to a mechanical work of Win
2.08 J used in the
conversion process. The mechanical to electrical energy conversion efficiency of the DEG is
Egen / Win
7.5% , equal to the ratio of the areas enclosed in the mechanical and electrical
work-conjugate planes of Fig. 4. For the selected experimental parameters defining our cycle the
measured specific electrical energy generated per cycle is 102 mJ/g , while the specific average
power amounts to 17 mW/g . Maximization of the specific electrical energy generated per cycle
would be feasible by operating the generator close to the boundaries of the area of allowable
states defined in ref. [2]. The observed mechanical to electrical energy conversion efficiency for
the VHB elastomer is rather low due to significant mechanical losses, possibly caused by creep
effects originating from the low cross-link density15 of the used elastomer. Prestretching the
membrane may increase efficiency.
In summary we have developed an experiment to monitor energy flows in DEGs. We use
large capacitors as input and output charge reservoirs to measure electrical energy flows,
obtaining the specific electrical energy generated per cycle and the specific average power. The
cycles presented in work-conjugate planes visualize the mechanical to electrical energy
6/12
conversion efficiency. If the DEG is operated close to the material limits the experiment can be
used to analyze the maximum specific electrical energy generated per cycle and mechanical to
electrical conversion efficiency, allowing for a comparison of the aptitude of different materials
for energy harvesting. Our method to monitor electrical energy flows with finite charge
reservoirs can be readily employed for different designs of DEGs. Future work will focus on the
study of the effects of prestrain, different generator designs and loss mechanisms on the
generated energy and efficiency.
Acknowledgments:
This work was partially supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF-P22912-N20). The work
at Harvard is supported by the NSF through a grant on Soft Active Materials (CMMI–0800161),
and by the MURI through a contract on Adaptive Structural Materials (W911NF-09-1-0476).
7/12
References:
Ron Pelrine, Roy D. Kornbluh, Joseph Eckerle, Philip Jeuck, Seajin Oh, Qibing Pei and Scott
Stanford, Proc. SPIE 4329, 148 (2001).
1
Soo Jin Adrian Koh, Xuanhe Zhao, and Zhigang Suo, Applied Physics Letters 94, 262902
(2009).
2
3
Ron Pelrine, Roy D. Kornbluh, Qibing Pei, and Jose Joseph, Science 287, 836-839 (2000).
4
Federico Carpi, Siegfried Bauer, and Danilo De Rossi, Science 330, 1759-61 (2010).
Roy D. Kornbluh, Ron Pelrine, Harsha Prahlad, Annjoe Wong-Foy, Brian McCoy, Susan Kim,
Joseph Eckerle and Tom Low, Proc. SPIE 7976, 797605 (2011).
5
Soo Jin Adrian Koh, Christoph Keplinger, Tiefeng Li, Siegfried Bauer, and Zhigang Suo,
IEEE/ASME Transactions On Mechatronics 16, 33-41 (2011).
6
Thomas McKay, Benjamin O'Brien, Emilio Calius and Iain Anderson, Proc. SPIE 7642, 764216
(2010)
7
Thomas McKay, Benjamin M. O´Brien, Emilio Calius, and Iain Anderson, Smart Materials and
Structures 19, 055025 (2010).
8
Thomas G. McKay, Benjamin M. O´Brien, Emilio P. Calius, and Iain Anderson, Applied Physics Letters 98, 142903 (2011).
9
Claire Jean-Mistral, Skandar Basrour and Jean-Jacques Chaillout, Proc. SPIE 6927, 692716
(2008).
10
11
Christian Graf and Jürgen Maas, Proc. SPIE 7976, 79760H (2011).
J. W. Fox and Nakhiah Goulbourne, Journal Of the Mechanics and Physics Of Solids 56,
2669-2686 (2008).
12
13
Adrian Koh, MRS Proceedings 1218, 1218-Z07-10 (2009).
Ingo Müller and Peter Strehlow, Rubber and Rubber Balloons: Paradigms Of Thermodynamics (Lecture Notes In Physics 637) (Springer, Heidelberg 2004), p. 4.
14
15
John G. Curro and Philip Pincus, Macromolecules 16, 559-562 (1983).
8/12
Figures:
Figure 1. (a) Setup for monitoring electrical and mechanical energy flows in a
dielectric elastomer generator. Cin and Cout serve as input and output charge
reservoirs. Electrical and mechanical energy flows are recorded by contactless
voltage measurements, pressure sensor readings and video images of the elastomer
shape. (b) Sketch of the electrical and mechanical energy flows in a DEG.
Mechanical energy pdV is used to boost the electrical energy from
out
dQ .
9/12
in
dQ to
Figure 2. Rectangular energy conversion cycle operating between two charge
reservoirs depicted in the work-conjugate ( , Q ) plane. The cycle proceeds counterclockwise from state 1 to state 4. During the four steps of the cycle solid and dashed
lines indicate the evolution of the balloon shape. In the constant voltage steps, 1
and 3
2
4 , charges are taken from the low voltage reservoir and fed into the high
voltage reservoir. In the constant charge steps 2
3 and 4
1 , the voltage across
the membrane is brought in line with the reservoirs. The area enclosed by the
contour corresponds to the generated electrical energy
10/12
Q.
Figure 3. Time evolution of work-conjugate variables during one full conversion
cycle. (a) Voltage
m
(top) and charge Qm (bottom) on the membrane. (b)
Excess pressure p (top) and volume V (bottom) of the balloon. Dashed red
lines with number labels correspond to the respective states in Fig. 2.
11/12
Figure 4. Measured cycle depicted in the (a) electrical and (b) mechanical workconjugate plane. The areas enclosed by the contours correspond to (a) the
generated electrical energy ( 156 mJ
energy ( 2.08 J
102 mJ/g ) and (b) the used mechanical
1.36 J/g ).
12/12